The general elections started in Nigeria on Saturday amid campaigners' zeal for democracy and the wish of most people in Nigeria for peace and safety, after numerous cases of violence were reported in the process of election campaigns.

About 28,000 candidates from 50 parties are running for the elections, which consist of two phases, gubernatorial and state assembly elections held this Saturday and the presidential and national assembly elections slated for next Saturday.

The elections for governors and state legislators were scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., but voting at some polling stations did not start on schedule because of problems like late arrival of electoral officials and materials. Southwest Ibadan, one of the major cities in the large west African country, and northern Katsina and Kano states all came across such problems. The same problem also took place in Lagos State, which has the country's largest population.

On the Victoria Island, a section of Lagos, citizens are waiting quietly in queue to vote at the make-shift polling stations at noon.

Staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission were overseeing the voting process with policemen and armed soldiers guarding around.

At Ibadan, a usual flash point of crisis, a joint military- police patrol arrested some alleged trouble makers with machine guns, eyewitnesses said.

In the volatile Niger Delta in the south, seven policemen were confirmed to have been killed in chaos.

Rivers State Commissioner of Police Felix Ogbaudu said in the state capital Port Harcourt that two police posts at Elelenwo and Mini Okoro in Port Harcourt were attacked and heavily armed suspected militants took away large caches of arms and ammunition following their abduction of two policemen.

Members of the riverine Buguma community, about 100 km from Port Harcourt, were also reported to have seized a police post, alleging that election materials were kept overnight in the police post.

In Warri, Delta State, elections had not commenced by noon as youths were seen protesting.

In Katsina, capital of northern Katsina State, where two top runners for the presidency Muhammadu Buhari and Umaru Musa Yar'adua come from, elections started late but were going normally.

Saturday's elections ended at 3:00 p.m., with people in Nigeria being eager to expect not only the election results, but also a democracy guaranteeing peace and safety.

Source: Xinhua